Groupie Doll breaks track record in Humana Distaff win

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Groupie Doll not only won the Grade 2 Humana Distaff on Saturday in a runaway, she broke the track record for a seven-furlong race. She stopped the timer in 1:20.44, besting the old mark of 1:20.50 set by Alanna on Derby Day 2001. That was same year that Monarchos ran a sub-two-minute race to win the Derby. Look out folks, this track is juiced.

Mildly Offensive got away the quickest, but was quickly tracked by Groupie Doll, Fantasy of Flight and Switch as the quarter went in 22.42. Speed kills and Mildly Offensive gave it up before the half-mile mark with Groupie Doll taking over and toying with the rest.

Groupie Doll poured it on coming off the turn and it was a procession down the lane as she won by seven-and-three-quarter lengths. Musical Romance was second, five-and-a-quarter lengths in front of Magical Feeling. The rest of the field was strung out behind her.

The 4-year-old daughter of Bowman’s Band earn $199,094 for owners Fred Bradley, William Bradley, Carl Hurst and Brent Burns. She is trained by William Bradley and was ridden to the win by Rajiv Maragh.

Groupie Doll returned $8.20, $4.40 and $3.20 to bettors. The exacta was worth $41.60 and the trifecta paid $351.40.

Maragh said he had a great trip. “She broke for me well, which is what I wanted. She went right out and put me in good position. She wanted to go at the three-eighths pole, but the plan wasn’t to do that right then. But she was doing it so willingly, I didn’t want to take that away from her. When she moved she really took off.”

HUMANA DISTAFF QUOTES

BUFF BRADLEY (trainer, Groupie Doll, first) — I told Rajiv (Maragh) to put her in the race early, but he got to the front earlier than I thought he would. When I saw that, I said, ‘She’s going to gallop from here.’ Finishing has never been an issue with her. I think she was even more impressive today than she was at Keeneland (in winning the Vinery Madison). She was just dragging Rajiv out there. The blinkers have really helped. I think she’s starting to figure things out. She’ll get a short break now. I’m guessing at least six weeks, but I need to talk to my partners. We haven’t even thought about a next race because we knew that win, lose or draw, she was going to get a break.”

JUAN LEYVA (jockey, Musical Romance, second) — “I had a really good trip. I had no trouble at all. I was able to stalk them. That filly just beat us today. She ran a freakish race.”

BILL KAPLAN (trainer, Musical Romance, second) – “I’m very happy. She had an outside post which forced her to be out a little bit. Juan (Leyva) rode a great race. The filly ran a great race. They broke the track record.”

ROBERTO ALVARADO, JR. (jockey, Magical Feeling, third) – “She’s a nice mare. She was pretty competitive today. We got an inside post and it was a little tough for us, but it worked out pretty well. I went around horses. It wasn’t the best trip. The winner and the second were too much for her.”

ALLEN IWINSKI (trainer, Magical Feeling, third) — “As always, this mare gave it her best. She was very well compromised by two things today. One, she was breaking from the one hole out of the chute going seven-eighths; that’s hasn’t been the greatest place to be at this meet. Second, it’s definitely been a speed-biased race track the last couple of days. She was about four lengths off the lead going into the turn with no where to go. Roberto backed her up and got to her to the outside. She lost ground and was five or six wide and she still persevered and kept coming. We’re pretty proud of her performance. Even though she did get beat, it almost felt like she won. She has been bred to Tapit, this is probably going to be her last race and succeeded in being Grade 1 stakes-placed.”

MIKE SMITH (jockey, Switch, fifth) — “She did fine for her first race back from the Breeders’ Cup (November at Churchill Downs). She’ll get a lot out of this race and will be much better next time.”